Moved by our “Learning and Teaching” value, since 2010 Prof. Falconi shares his management experience and knowledge with the readers of Exame magazine on a monthly basis. Through objective answers, he establishes a dialogue and clarifies doubts about methods, entrepreneurship, career and leadership, among other topics related to the business world.

Check out the September/2016 column below. Enjoy your reading!

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IS A LEADER BORN OR CAN A LEADER BE CREATED?

Reproduction: Exame.com

1. In your point of view, is leadership an innate characteristic or can it be gained through training? Anonymous

This is a question that raises a lot of discussion. What is a leader? Here’s the definition that I really like: a leader is someone that achieves goals with his team, and in an ethical manner. Note that, according to this definition of a leader, there is the assumption that he must be very good at achieving targets, yes. But must also know that those who achieve the target is the team – not him.

So the role of the leader is to be constantly helping his team to achieve goals. He knows that in order to reach a goal, it is necessary to seek new knowledge on the subject of the goal. After all, if people already had that knowledge, that goal would have been achieved long ago, do you agree? This is the help he gives to his team: to seek knowledge all the time.

At the same time, in a company, those who are not ethical can not be leaders. Ethics, which is the basis of company values, must always be one of the criteria in the choice of leaders. The advancement of a company is the constant pursuit of this knowledge necessary to achieve goals. What drives this movement are goals that are well distributed throughout the company.

There are people who like to work with other people, like to help, to seek knowledge and to celebrate the victories achieved with their team. But people are different and not everyone likes to work as a team. On the other hand, not everyone is ethical, a trait that can be learned.

So I believe that a leader is born with the right qualifications, but he can be educated and trained to become an ever better leader. Some characteristics are innate. Others are acquired through practice.

2. When it comes to making staff cuts because of the crisis, what is the best way to do this without impacting the organization too much? Anonymous

This subject is always bad, especially in times of crisis. First of all, it is good to emphasize that no one likes to dismiss employees. Companies do this to survive and protect the remaining jobs. If there is going to be a staff cuts, it will inevitably have an impact. It can be large or small. I have seen several situations of cutting staff in very different conditions.

One large company laid off 4,000 employees from one single location at the same time. It was a national uproar. This practice is not good because it makes it very difficult to reallocate the dismissed personnel. At the same time, another company, also large and with several factories in Brazil, dismissed approximately the same amount of people and this went unnoticed.

The reason: This company fired people from various locations and also diluted layoffs over time. Doing it this way there is more chance of reallocating personnel. If the company is small, I recommend doing it at all at once and letting the people who stay behind know that there will be no more cuts. This way the people feel the impact, but they also understand.

The best thing for the company to do over time, is to always strive to work with the minimum amount of people possible, continually reducing the work force based on the natural turnover of staff. This way, there will never be a crisis situation that causes massive layoffs. There may be adjustments, but never a dramatic situation.

3. I work in one of the fastest growing areas within a company, although my pay is below what the market pays. I have been working at the company for eight years and started as an accounting assistant. I have been working as an executive for 3 years, and I am now 29 years old. I have met with the directors a few times to speak about this situation, but the answer is always the same: we like your work very much, but we need you to wait a little more. What do I do in this case? Anonymous

This is a very difficult question. Each case is different. I believe in staying in a company for a long time. If you love what you do and you get along well with the people in the company, if you are happy, this is worth a lot and it is not always advisable to jump from branch to branch because of a difference in salary.

If you earn a good salary, but are unhappy at work, you will end up leaving, albeit for a smaller salary. That being said, it is obvious that we all want to grow and have a more comfortable life.

Since you are young, and if you are dissatisfied with what you earn and you see better prospects, it may be worthwhile for you to move forward. However, I once again say, every case is different. My father, in a situation like this, always told me: “My son, let your star shine!” Give it time and your intuition will show you the way.